Aurellis
Blackhall, April, Imperial year 763
It was a table for two. But this was not a
romantic dinner. The table sat atop a platform, so that the two
could look down on all those who passed by. And the passing by was
at a distance too. Fifteen feet of clear floor stretched between the
table and the red silk rope barrier that surrounded it. And then
around that, only another four feet away were the mirrors. All
around them, except for a gap exactly equidistant between the two
seated people, on either side, mirrors so that both could see the
full surroundings without so much as an eye movement.
Servers would come through the gap, then step
over the silk rope, before bringing whatever it was to the table.
Gawkers would just stand outside the rope, and gawk.
Two women occupied the table, both stunning in
their own way. The fact that both had eyes of the deepest red kept
the gawkers interested. The fact that one was utterly gorgeous,
clothed only in her own long brunette hair, which tantalised the viewer
with glimpses of the woman beneath, while never showing the complete
picture. And then there was the other. Her costume seemed to consist
of additional muscular tissue outside her skin, glistening scarlet
with blood. Yet even more stunning, so much so that people would not
bring themselves to vomit in horror until they were no longer in her
sight. Almost without notice was blond hair atop a head that
appeared to have too much bone.
The instantly recognisable figure of Donna
Vinciessa proceeded through the gap in the
mirrors and stepped up to the table. “Ladies, I hope everything is
to your satisfaction.”
“Yes, it seems to be. If the hunks can bring
out the cocaine now, we can relax and get down to business.” said
the horrific woman.
“Of course.” Said Vinciessa. “Majesty, If I
might ask, are you able to say how long you might need the table? It
is rather an extensive edifice we have had to build to meet your
requirements, and this is normally one of our most popular rooms.”
“I’ve no idea. We’ll just have to see how it
goes.” Said the horrific woman. “Quicker, I’ve no doubt, if we’re
not chatting with you, my dear.”
“Of course. I’ll send the boys right out.”
Vinciessa said, and then with a small bow, departed.
“Why are we sitting in the middle of a hall of
mirrors?” said the gorgeous woman.
“Because that way, neither of us can do
anything behind the other’s back.” Was the reply.
“Any reason why we might?”
“Other than the fact that the last time we met,
I killed you, you mean?”
“Well, I suppose there is that. On the other
hand, I doubt I could actually finish anything destructive before
your darling brother could drop in from up there in the lighting rig
where he’s hovering. Not very subtle having him stuck up there.”
“One can never be too careful. It’s not
particularly you he’s there for. Change always has its opponents,
and our change, so recent as it was, replaced a status quo that had
lasted forever.”
“Very well. That has logic I suppose, and I’ve
never objected to admiring myself in a mirror. But aren’t you
worried about the audience?”
“What audience?”
“That would be the somewhat large number of
former Rebman witches who have made mirror magic their very own
special thing. They communicate through them, watch through them,
and in the most skilled cases, travel through them. You’ve given
several hundred of Discordia’s best a ringside seat for whatever it
is we’re going to be talking about.”
“Well, that just once again goes to prove that
I picked the right demoness for this. I’m willing to put up with
letting some Discordians listen in, if it means I can see anything
coming up behind me. Unlike the Queen of the 5th Abyss,
I’ve never quite been happy with the ‘eyes in the back of my head’
thing.”
“I assume you mean Lolth? The spider daughter
of the actual Queen.”
“There you go again, you see. It’s that extra
level of detail you have that is why I want you to do this thing.”
“You keep going on about ‘this thing’, but you
seem to be shy about actually telling me what it is?”
“We’ll get to that. The hunks are here.”
Indeed, two men had arrived, prime examples of
the beefcake adjective, each carrying a polished mirror on which
three lines of white powder were laid out, with a one-hundred-dollar
bill alongside. Both the men were naked, gleaming in oil, and
standing to attention in the presence of the two ladies.
“After you, my queen.” Said the gorgeous woman.
The other woman took the hundred-dollar bill,
rolled it like an expert and proceeded to snort one line of powder
up each nostril. She then handed the bill to her hunk, before taking
his manhood, licking her tongue along the underside of it, laying it
down atop the remaining line of powder so that the powder stuck to
it, and then taking it into her mouth to the root. From the
expression on the hunk’s face, it was difficult to tell whether he
was in ecstasy
or agony, and his eventual convulsion almost caused him
to fall over. Shortly after, the queen released his phallus from her
mouth, no longer erect and no longer bearing any white powder.
The man was looked down at himself, swayed, and began to turn a
greenish white colour. “Not here!” commanded the queen. “You will
not puke here!”
“Doesn’t that upset you?” asked the gorgeous
woman. “Having guys want to throw up because you bled all over them
while giving them head?”
“On the contrary. He’s fascinated yet revolted.
He was erect after all when he came. And now, he strives to obey my
command, yet his insides are churning, causing him both agony and
joy. It gives me great arousal to cause such duality in people. I
would orgasm if I so much as let him just touch my clit, yet I fear
that letting him see that would break my control over him, because I
tend to ooze and squirt even more when the spasms take over. I fear
we would have too much mess to clean up.”
“I’m sure they’re used to it here. After all,
Feds are some of their best customers these days, and they freely
enjoy every substance that can be emitted from any orifice as part
of their sexuality.”
“Yes, but you don’t, do you my dear?”
“I can’t give you a fair answer, my queen. I am
a demoness. I strive for pleasure. Yet I am also required to do
those things that I am contracted or ordered to do. I have found the
Federation female attitude that if one has no choice about doing
things, then one should modify one’s mind set until those things
bring you pleasure, to be invaluable in allowing complete
satisfaction, during whatever is required of me. So if you were to
let him touch your clit such that you came and that caused him to
vomit all over you, then I cannot deny that I would find pleasure in
that.”
“Bitch! I’m sure you would.” The queen
chuckled. “For fuck’s sake, just do the coke so we can get these
bozos out of here and get back to our conversation.”
The gorgeous woman looked at her man’s
erection, then twirled her finger, and the three lines of cocaine
started to swirl around the man’s phallus in a triple spiral,
settling and sticking in three fine lines along the length of it. The woman then
proved herself the equal of her queen as she took it to the root in
her mouth, holding it there until that man also reached his tumult.
As he withdrew from her mouth, his organ was glistening but clean.
The woman shook her head, causing her hair to
wave, revealing a body that would put most of the women at Blackhall
to shame. “Wow! That’s good stuff.”
“Nobody ever accused the Don of selling
inadequate product.” Was the queen’s reply. “Now, you two fuck off,
and tell them to bring the meal in 10 minutes.”
“Yes, majesty.” Said the man who had been next
to the gorgeous woman. The other man still seemed to be incapable of
speech. His companion dragged him away from the platform and out
through one of the gaps in the mirrors. From the noises that
followed, it seemed that a crowd of people had observed him lose his
internal battle once he was out of the queen’s presence.
“They’ll charge you extra for that.” Commented
the gorgeous woman.
“They better fucking not! They were given due
warning, and told to have clean-up crews on hand. I’m surprised more
of the gawkers aren’t doing that anyway. Clearly, it must be your
influence.”
“I’ll take the compliment with thanks. Even if
I don’t believe it. It’s probably more that they’re used to the Feds
by now.”
“Anyway. To our discussion. Having had your
hands on it for a short while, you are no doubt aware of the
Two-fold Crown of the Demon Queen.”
“Yes, I am aware of it.”
“I’m sorry about killing you. But you have to
realise that you had no chance of keeping it, and I just wasn’t
willing to let that farce go on any longer.”
“I nearly lost my mother that night.”
“She shouldn’t have been involved. She’s not
one of us. That was her mistake and yours, not something you can
blame me for. I apologise to you, but I will not apologise to her.”
“She is as much of me as your mother is of
you!”
“No, she is not. Our nature is not as hers.
Even though you came out of her womb, she is not as we are. She
cannot feel the things we can, or do the things we can. She cares
about Order and Chaos, and Good and Evil. She is not ruled by
rapture and agony as we are.”
“Get to the point. You are not improving my
mood, my queen.”
“Very well. You are aware of the Crown. You are
also aware where it rests. As with my predecessor, I do not need to
wear it upon my head for its Power to be with me. However, I feel a
need to take a more hands on approach to the place where it sits.
Simply declaring that the Realm is off limits to others of our kind
will not satisfy me.”
“What does it matter, if you get the Power
anyway?”
“What it matters is that any of our kind who
are on that world will get the same benefits. She who came before me
either didn’t know or didn’t care. As she never lost even a grain of
her soul, ever, from being queen, she never could understand the
temptation that such things have.”
“OK. That makes sense. So what do you want from
me?”
“I wish to place you as my steward in that
realm. You will be responsible for enforcing my prohibition on our
kind being there.”
“Me? Why me? Why not one of your co-wives? Why
not your brother? Or one of your daughters?”
“Because this is all about Power, and none of
them would be any better for this than if I were to do it myself.
Power for the most part is a product of the mind, and you are
without question the demoness most blessed in that attribute.”
“So, you like me for this because of my big
brain?”
“Pretty much. And the things you have done with
it. You have studied all the arcane disciplines. You even have that
Amber Pattern in your portfolio, which means that you are best
positioned to deal with Power hungry bitches and bastards who try
and steal the benefits of my Crown.”
“Marvellous.”
“Look, of all the ones who had their hands on
it that night, you are the one of them all that I could have hoped
might have been able to keep it. But hopes are no use in the real
world. Power was not going to be the outcome of that night. As we
sit here, the uncomfortable fact is that I am the 14th
most dangerous thing in existence, and you are somewhere in the
upper 400s on that scale. Despite all these mirrors, I could stand
up, move round behind you and decapitate you and it would mostly be
over before you have time to do more than raise an arm in defence,
which would only change things such that I ended up cutting your
hand off in addition to your head. This is simply what it is. It’s
not that you’re bad. You’re not. It’s just that there are so many
more Princesses of Anihilation that are better than you at combat.
It was going to happen. By me doing it, at least that was the end of
it.”
“So, if I’m such a crap fighter, why are we
here talking about this?”
“Because, like I said, this isn’t about
fighting. A sharp sword isn’t going to find the sneaky bitches who
are stealing my Power. Combat isn’t going to set the wards that will
spot them as they creep onto that world. This job was made for you.
Literally actually. You’re the only one I’ve talked to about this.”
“And what is to stop me from benefitting from
being there?”
“Absolutely nothing. In fact, that’s the main
perk I’m hoping will persuade you to take it. You get to be there,
with my full approval, with all the benefits that entails. Hell, if
you play your cards right, you can even gain some soul from this. We
both know that we both have burn. Now, we would both have the chance
to reduce that, helped by it not increasing any more. But you have
to be there, to get that result.”
The gorgeous woman closed her eyes for a moment
as an expression of rapture passed across her face. “OK, I’m
interested. What are the rules?”
“Glad you asked. The pentacle has five points,
and for that reason I will permit five to gain this benefit. I am
one, you would be the second. You may therefore, at your discretion
allow up to three other demons or demonesses to be on that Realm at
any one time while you are there, and if you are absent, one more
may take your place. It is up to you to decide who those others
would be, and to ensure that they are the only ones there, with the
proviso that at any given time, I may give you one month’s notice on
the local Realm’s calendar, that one of my Consort partners or one
of my own children or my brother, will be visiting the Realm, and
taking up one of those slots, until such time as they wish to leave
again of their own accord. There will only be one at once of those,
and if you have all the slots full when I give you notice, then you
have a month to evict someone to make a slot available. Do you
understand these rules as I have explained them?”
“I believe I do. Do you realise there are
already two demonesses in residence there, despite the previous
queen’s edict?”
“You see! There you go. I had no idea, not did
I have any idea how I would find out.”
“Very well. I believe we have an agreement.”
“One more thing. Don’t make me regret this
agreement with you. For the very reasons that I have chosen you for
this, even though I’m your queen, we both know I can’t order you to
do this in any binding way. So we are going to have to trust each
other. I am going to have to trust you to do as you have agreed, and
you are going to have to trust that the death I gave you in the
night on the Five Queens will be a simple prick in comparison to the
pain and agony I will cause you if I find you to have betrayed me in
our agreement. Do we have understanding, Princess?”
“Yes, we do, my queen. We do not have to like
each other to be able to do business. We are demons after all.”
“Very well. Then let us eat, drink and be
merry, as the Hendrakes say, for tomorrow we may die. And as they do
not get to go on to say, we will eat drink and be merry again the
day after.”